Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Unslut is a documentary created by Emily Lindin to teach about slut shaming and it's affects on girls of all ages. Emily Lindin, the founder of the Unslut Project, takes you through several true stories of girls who have been slut shamed during their grade school years. Throughout the documentary, we hear the thoughts form family and friends who went through the experiences with the girls and how it affected them. The Unslut Project began when Emily Lindon was slut-shamed when she was very young. This motivated her to start the Unslut Project in 2013 and post entries from her diary when she was younger to help and inspire girls to do the same. She opened this forum so that all genders can have a safe place to share their stories. This documentary was definitely eye opening for me because we all have slut shamed in the past and sometimes people just like to start tumors because they have nothing else better to do with their lives. I'm glad Lindin has started this movement because a lot of celebrities, like Amber Rose, has contributed to the awareness of slut shamming happening everywhere.

I'm sorry to say, but young men are being raised into rape culture, as seen in Tough Guise 2. Men are taught to praise the female body for it's wondrous curves , but shame it at the same time. Society is teaching men that it's okay for them only to have sex often but a woman cannot be sexually liberated herself. When a woman is sexually liberated, she is deemed as a slut. When speaking on sex positivity, we as a society should promote safe sex, instead of shaming women who are free to do whatever they want.http://www.amberroseslutwalk.com/

Sunday, December 6, 2015

I've always thought of the most powerful way to get rid of racism and systematic oppression was through POC standing up for ourselves, I now understand that in order to alter the world and history, our white allies do need to stand up with us. Many claim they aren't racist nor support racism but will not speak up when a racist act is being performed. I understand the fear that people have when it comes to speaking up on behalf of others, but sitting on the sidelines and not stopping it just makes you apart of the problem because you are unintentionally participating. Participating in racist acts is not the wave. On the other hand it is very difficult to help change the views of racist people, hence why many think it's pointless to even try.

Ayvazian explains what an ally and allied behavior is in her article. Allied behavior is, "intentional, overt, consistent activity that challenges prevailing patterns of oppression, makes privileges that are so often invisible, and facilitates the empowerment of persons targeted by oppression." For example, Bernie Sanders is an ally. Donald Trump is FARRRRRRR from it. My favorite quote from this article was Ayvazian quoting William Stickland, "When a critical mass of white people join together, rise up, and shout a thunderous "No!" to racism, we will actually alter the course of history."

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Tough Guise 2:
It was enjoyable learning about how feminism correlates with male/masculinity. I knew that feminism was not only concerning women, but all genders. Not many people (especially males) realize that feminism is not a female-only movement. Feminists are usually stereotyped as man-hating raging lesbians, and I don't blame them because some of our kind act this way by blaming men for everything.Violence is definitely the main focus on masculinity. Men and boys alike are being taught to be tough, not be a "sissy", not cry, and remain emotionless through movies, media and video games, and of course every day life because it is our social norm and definitely apart of manhood. In Tough Guise 2, it was said, "Men's violence is inevitable. It's a natural phenomenon." It was also mentioned that violence is natural to a male because of their high testosterone levels. Because of social norms, people put the pressure on men that they only way to resolve problems is to fight.
Another point Tough Guise 2 made was that when women act out, their gender becomes the story, but like when a man of color does, race becomes the story. I never thought of putting it that way. There are also different phrases used. Just this past week there was a blonde woman KING PIN arrested, and she was called ADORABLE, but all these other men, men who were shot and killed with no weapon or no felonies, gets labeled a thug.

What are Little Boys Made of? by Kimmel
I cannot believe the assumptions that critics have said about feminism, especially, "America has been so focused on girls that we've forgotten about boys." which is always an ongoing debate because men and boys never seem to be the main discussion in the media because in return there are men who firmly believe men are suppose to be masculine. The comparison of Norwegian, French or Swiss boys not being as violent, homophobic and misogynist as American boys concerns me because it is a problem in America. We are the last ones for everything because our government can never agree one something that will better our country.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Growing up I never played with dolls. Barbies and American Girl dolls was not my thing. I always liked to build, play video games and never liked the color pink. My parents were okay with that because boy toys were always essentially cheaper. I still wore dresses and liked the color pink. I wore pink almost every day for years. Everyone always bought me Barbies. I had the Barbie camper and a few dolls. I always, always, always tried to get myself to like playing with dolls, but there was nothing there to mentally stimulate. My imagination was there, but if I wasn't getting my hands dirty, it wasn't me. I remember getting my first American Girl doll for my 10th birthday. She was blonde and blue eyed. She came with a surfing board, as well as surfing gear. She came with a story, just as mentioned in the article. I just remember hating the way I looked because I did not resemble this doll. My little cousin recently was gifted an American Girl doll, pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. She loves it. She always tells me she wishes she looked like her. She's an Afro-Dominican child. I always tell her, "You're beautiful. You don't need pin straight hair, or light skin." I see her mind being warped because of this mental image of "perfection."

When asking Dana, a thirty eight year old stay at home mom, how she felt about the rest of the Little Mermaid, she exclaimed that she doesn't let her daughter read the actual story because they are horrible. Her daughter just identified with Ariel because she loves to swim. My favorite saying of Dana's was, "Every single one is the same: it's about romance, love, and being rescued by the prince. I will protect my daughter from that." This is a very strong point that Dana made. I wouldn't want my child growing up thinking that she needs to be rescued by someone in order to find love, but this is unintentionally learned throughout society. By telling girls at a young age, they SHOULDN'T be doing something deemed as masculine, almost lessens their being.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Saturday, October 17, 2015

White feminism is a thing, and should be discussed amongst everyone (whether or not you think it exists.) I am a black feminist, also known as a womanist. Womanists focus more on racial and gender oppression of black women or women of color. Mainstream feminism overlook the oppressions of black women or other minority groups, not so much purposely, but not knowing how to go about questioning what they can do.

I loved Smith's piece so much. In the second paragraph, she talks on racism and how no one ever wants to speak on it, but ti's always there. "For those of you who are tired of hearing about racism, imagine how much more tired we are of constantly experiencing it..." She uses the words "hard" and "uncomfortable" to describe people's feelings towards the matter when no one should ever feel that way because racism and oppression is a feminist issue. Women are progressing, yes. But let's be honest. Women make 77 cents to a man's dollar? W R O N G. WHITE women make 77 cents to a man's dollar. Black women only make 64 cents to a man's dollar. Bet most people did not know that.

My favorite quote of this article was, "If lifting this oppression is not a priority to you, then it's problematic whether you are a part of the actual feminist movement." Feminism should be uplifting ALL women no matter what, all differences aside and if you cannot embrace who/what someone is, how can you understand the hardships others have to face?

Saturday, October 3, 2015

As much as I loved Kristof's article, I believe that Bernie Sanders has raised the issues of class gap, as well as the tax bracket, and child poverty in the United States. Sanders' biggest belief is that no worker who works forty hours a week should be living in poverty and also wants to raise minimum wage to fifteen dollars by 2020 (unlikely if you ask me but we'll see.) I enjoyed Kristof's article very much because he addressed issues in a very honest manner without favoring the corporate world, like most journalists seem to do. My favorite part of this article by far is when he writes, "Some think success is all about “choices” and “personal responsibility.” Yes, those are real, but it’s so much more complicated than that.“Rich kids make a lot of bad choices,” Professor Reardon notes. “They just don’t come with the same sort of consequences.”" I cannot praise this enough. It's about who you know, and how much money you have, hence why economic inequity is an issue, especially a feminist issue. Feminism is "a range of movements and ideologies that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women." Who falls into the most economic inequality? YAASSS YOU GUESSED IT. Women. Women of color especially. Same job, same amount of time spent at the job, (possibly) same position. Pay difference? Of course.

People Like Us is definitely a film I would like to see soon. I wasn't able to play the games they had on the website but I did read the character's stories. They were all apart of a different economic status. Reading the background, and knowing that schools and libraries are able to order a copy.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Misogyny is something that is always thrown under the table that is never talked about but definitely needs to be discussed. Women will almost always be looked at as an object. It's a norm seeing women in provocative attire on the cover of magazines and this alters the way we look at ourselves. I've always had a problem with my body image because all I ever saw was caucasian skinny women basically yelling, "THIS IS HOW YOU SHOULD BE." One of the women who is interviewed after her breast implants says, "I really like my new boobs, I feel really girly and confident."I did not know larger breasts define how girly you are, or the confidence you have. The breasts we see in these magazines are false advertisement. Everything in magazines are altered to appeal to the the dummies who believe that celebrities look like dolls in real life. Not many people would agree with me but, when talking about Nelly Furtado's song, Promiscuous Girl, I don't find anything wrong with it. A female can have casual sex just as a man can without being called "slut," "whore," etc. The woman in the video says the video is "promoting sluttiness" but really she's just saying "we're one in the same." No matter what a female does, it will always be objectifying. She sleeps with multiple men, she's a slut. He sleeps with multiple females, he's got game. Lil Kim said it best, If the guy have three girls then he's the man. He can either give us some head, sex a roar. If the girl do the same, then she's a whore." I always refer back to Queen Kim when discussing the matter of casual sex.

I don't like how this video used the Pussycat Dolls for the main focus on the sex appeal for women because let's be honest, the only reason why they were famous because just that. Referring back to the beginning of the video, they say something along the lines of, "would their music be sold if there was no sex appeal?"Lastly, the segment of the rapper Eminem and him not using the "n-word" and using "bitch," "hoe," etc., is definitely incomparable and I'll leave it at that........................................

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Firstly, I just like to say that in the article, the explanation of oppression was definitely not as knee deep as I would have hoped. It was definitely sugar coated and should not have been thought of or compared to as a bird in a cage, maybe an electric cage but not an ordinary one especially since because oppression is more common now more than ever.

"The statement that women are oppressed is frequently met with the claim that men are oppressed too. We hear that oppressing is oppressive to those who oppress as well as to those they oppress. Some men cite as evidence of their oppression on their much -advertised inability to cry."

I'm not sure how I feel about this quote because I don't understand how man can think they are oppressed when they "made up" these gender norms per se. Masculinity is very much so praised in society, but only when it's a cis male. Even [some] women won't accept a man who shows much emotion. I do understand to a point where they are "oppressed" but I wouldn't even call it oppressed...there has to be another word out there.

"Both heterosexual activity and heterosexual nonactivity are likely to be taken as proof that you wanted to be raped, and hence, of course, weren't really raped at all. You can't win. You are caught in a bind, caught between systematically related pressures."

Frye is definitely right when she said, "You can't win" because you really can't. Most people think that because women get raped they were "asking for it" by wearing "provocative clothing." In most instances, women are in normal every day clothing when raped.

Question: I do have a question regarding last weeks article that I've been thinking of since then; How come homophobia is often feared when talking about feminism? We are fighting for equality amongst all genders and sexes and women are worried about being called a lesbian? I don't understand.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Rowe-Funkbeiner, "A Tsunami in History" from the F-Word; Feminism in Jeopardy

Reflection:

Reading the
first article made me raise questions about race in the Feminism world. I don’t
exactly consider myself a feminist because of that matter. I do consider myself
a womanist, which is a type of feminism but concerning racial and gender
oppression of our black women. On page 26, ___ states, “Many allege that the
second wave represented mainly the concerns of middle and upper class white
women,” and it’s just that. Even now there is a difference between “white
feminism” and “black feminism”. Most middle class white women now in the third
wave are not as discriminated against as black women still are. In the passage
on page 27, Susan Brownmiller responded to the question of, “Do you think women
of color were excluded in the second wave?” and she responded with something along
the lines of, “Definitely not, but they were “torn” because of civil rights
issues with black men.” I thought that statement was complete bullshit. What is
feminism? It’s equality among all gender, sexual
orientation, skin color, ethnicity, religion, culture, or lifestyle, right? So
why wouldn’t civil rights be included? In the third wave of feminism today, some,
not all are more concerned about things like “Free the Nipple” instead of more
important problems at hand. I do understand the frustration of the female body
being sexualized by man when breasts are just breasts and nothing more, but
there’s more to it. We as women should not be fighting to prove that we are
better than men, but to fight to prove that we are more than capable to work
along side men as equals in all sense to the word.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

My name is Verrie. I'm currently a junior in the college world, but this is the beginning of my second year here at RIC. I look completely mean and unapproachable, but I promise you I'm not. I work full time at Dunkin Donuts and go to school full time, so I have little to no social life. I'm a proud advocate for #BlackLivesMatter. I'm always reading articles on random things rather than reading textbooks for school work. This summer I was a donut slave for most of the days, on Sundays I usually went to the beach (although you cannot really tell), and of course I took my naps. I love naps. I forgot, I bought my first car this summer as well. It's not the nicest car, nor the quietest car, and I know for sure it's not going to do well in the snow this year, but I'm just so proud to call it mine.